I've been thinking about creating a website like this for years, but I never go around to it.

I'm a programmer so if I want something done by a computer my natural reaction is to program it myself -- which is why I never got around to making this site. So I eventually decided to see what's out there is Open Source land. I specifically wanted something in Java technologies - because that's what I use most of the time, and I have Tomcat servers available to use.

I tried out JSPBLOG - particularly because it stores the blog data in MySQL, which is my prefered storage for pretty much all data. JSPBLOG didn't work out ofthe box -- how could it without the appropriate information for locating a MySQL database. There seemed to be no installation instructions and no indication of the problem. It just gave a blank page.

I tried Pebble. It didn't say where it kept the data, although by implication it isn't MySQL.  But it was a dream to install - less than the 5 minutes claimed, and doing nothing complicated. (Assuming, that it is, you have a Tomcat server :-) and you know what you are doing with Tomcat.)

It came up straightaway and appeared to be fully functional. It has an impressive amount of function, and, when considered with all the related open source components is a wonderful example of open source at its best.